We’ve made a bit of a career of it over the last 20 years or so – probably a few thousand boats if you include kits and classes and plans. Up to around 50ft.

No problems at all.

In general if using modern methods I would be choosing materials that glue reliably as far as possible and eliminating the fastenings.

Lower Maintenance because of less deterioration.

The three main reasons are

1/ It eliminates the fastener plugs that end up imprinting the paint job after a few years. Darker and red boats are the main culprit but I’ve seen plenty of lighter colour boats do this too (we are in Australia – so think hot).

2/ Fasteners by necessity have to cross glue lines so provide a way of water getting through the structure. Without them even when there has been localised damage – it has stayed localised.

3/ Eliminating Fasteners makes repairs quick and simple.
The last reason is the ease of repairs – you can remove large amounts of boat along really complex lines with a router preset to a particular depth.

The router can be set to the plywood thickness or if cold moulded it can be done to the depth of each successive layer so each layer overlaps further onto the existing structure than the previous.

Then glue new parts in using temporary formers (or not if the remaining structure has enough support for the new bits being glued in). It is a bit amazing to rip the bottom, deck or side off a racing boat after a prang and have a new section glued in for racing the next day – sure it won’t be painted – just epoxy sealed – three coats and there will be one very tired crewmember the next day (he’s the one who has to finish the outside coats – the inside ones are done immediately before gluing the patch in place). But having no fasteners makes it really quick to remove the damage.

This example shows a very small boat, but the method works just about as quickly for much bigger boats too.

Overnight Repair for a PDRacer that Peter put his foot through

(he doesn’t have my catlike agility!)

Actually it was a series of problems from building our budget PDRacers. Two boats that cost us $350 each and sail really well.

We had found some budget ply – a hardwood ply 4mm thick (5/16″). I’d used bottoms of a similar thickness previously and found they were OK – but this plywood was really brittle and had large voids – you could see light through it on a sunny day and the voids looked like red laser beams shining through the ply.

EEEEEEEEEK

Anyway we tried to ignore it and hoped for the best. The bottom of the boat had already broken away from the centreboard case logs (red arrow below). So we decided to replace the bottoms with 6mm gaboon ply which was lighter in weight than the ply we were replacing.

So I replaced one bottom one day and the other boat’s bottom the next – so we still had a boat to sail each day – Luxury!!

Since this time the boats have been sailed extensively with no problems at all.

So here are the pics.

The hole in the bottom – but wait – there’s more…

A couple of days before the bottom had delamined away from the centrecase logs and the blue arrows shows the torn veneer from a piece of string that was laminated into the ply!?!

From the inside of the boat I drilled holes adjacent to all framing that the bottom was glued to so I would know where to run the router

The router was set to the 4mm thickness of the bottom ply. As I routered around the framing and filleting that supported the floor became visible.

After more routing – elapsed time was around 15 minutes by this point. Fast and furious. I can’t complete all the routering because of the protrusion of the bottom runners.

So I have to finish off by trimming bits with the japanese saw and then chiselling any remaining ply off the underlying framework.

I have run over the gluing surfaces with a belt sander to get rid of any other protruding bits. You can see the centrecase clearly and at the far end is the mast step framing.

Before the bottom goes back on I check the twist of the boat by laying a straight edge across the middle and eyballing to make sure the bow are stern are running parallel. I blocked up the corners of the boat to make sure everything was true.

I dry fit the bottom by screwing in place with plasterboard/drywall screws. Then flip the boat so I can mark all the positions of the framing – I won’t be able to see it from the outside of the boat when the bottom goes on permanently so my plan is to drill guide holes

Marking the edge of the sidetank fillet. This join doesn’t have any support from framing timber – it is epoxy filleted in place.

I’m marking the width of the chine log on the edge of the ply so I know where to put the screw to put the wee beestie back together.

When the bottom is glued on then screwed down excess glue will ooze out either side of any of the framing – I masking tape on the sides of all the framing and fillets so the ooze doesn’t make a bad mess. We are now 50 mins in.

I missed a pic in this sequence.

Before the bottom goes on I coated what would be the inside of the bottom with three coats of epoxy applied wet on wet so the inside of the bottom will be epoxy sealed at the same time as the gluing is finished. While I waited for each coat to go tacky I make and eat my lunch.

As the final coat goes on the ply sheet I apply glue mix to all the hull framing then start screwing the bottom in place. Time – 1hr 40 mins.

One area that was a little problematic were the areas where the buoyancy tank faces were originally filleted to the bottom. It is easy to use temporary screws to hold the bottom in place when there is timber beneath but you can’t drive a screw into a fillet!!!

So I put battens across the boat – if I didn’t have Peter’s long clamps I would have screwed the battens into the chine log.

Then I pack under the batten to press the bottom against the fillet surface. Could just drill holes and use cable ties.

I then masking taped the painted sides of the boat and do three wet on wet epoxy coats to seal the outside of the boat. That’s another couple of hours (the temperature has dropped) but I watch a couple of shows on TV between coats and cook and eat dinner.

The last step is to wait another couple of hours until the final coat has gelled off and fill the screw holes.

An alternative method that Pat from Duckflat uses is to fill the holes first making them completely flush. The normal downside of this is that the timber soaks up some of the epoxy in the filler and you end up with a dent over each filled hole. BUT Pat waits until the filler has become a little rubbery and then does the bottom with three wet on wet coats of epoxy. The liquid epoxy fills the dents. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet – but it sounds good.

Next morning I sand the filled holes flush and put the boat down by the river.

Here is a picture of one of the repaired boats taking the world sailing speed record for PD Racers – 9.2 mph which is also the record for OzRacers. It was rough that day and no problems from the bottom!

Share with Friends

On the "round Australia trip" I found myself employed by a tiny business in Adelaide - Duck Flat Wooden Boats in Adelaide.
It was an eye opener - It became clear that one could build a boat for a fraction of the cost of current racing boats.
My ideas hinged around high performance, easy building, fun to sail and reasonably cheap
Today Storer Boats are built in all countries and we have active groups on Facebook for the following groups
Goat Island Skiff
Open Goose
Storer Boat plans
Really Simple Sails

One thought on “Q&A – Fast boat repairs with no fasteners.”

[…] – it looks long, but it is REALLY FAST! – only a day to replace the complete bottom of a small sailing boat and have it in the water the follo… Filed under Boat, Boat building, Boat repair, Damage, Epoxy, FAQ – Info about materials and […]

I have gotten into it from the back before in deep water. You may want to add a step. Also it is remarkably stable. I would not board it from the side though.

Enrico Franconi has a video of sailing between islands and snorkeling from the goat.

Here is Enrico's video. He has camping gear in his boat and food and water so it is a lot more stable than when empty. So he can jump over the side. He has a superlight folding ladder he made for the transom.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kavwTqTnoZo

How much time do you folks who have completed your goats think you have in your builds? I'm guessing 250 to 500 hours depending on skill level and degree of, um, ornamentation. I'm planning to start this fall and budget about 10 hours a week. ... See MoreSee Less

Mine took about 300h, or two and a half years, depending on how you count...

I say you can do less if you're efficient. Or you could make it in record time by buying mine, for sale in Provincetown!

I spent about 300 hours spread over 3 years. I had no idea what I was doing and no experience either building boats or general woodworking. I could probably shave some time off if I built another.

I think mine took three and a half months working nights and weekends.

6 months calendar time using a Clint Chase kit.

I'm sorry the blizzard conditions prevented our get-together last winter. I look forward to following your progress building your Goat.

I have been keeping a log of build times and my numbers are a bit higher. Starting with a Clinton B Chase kit, it took me right at 100 hours to build the rudder, centerboard and 5 spars for the yawl rig. All are glassed and/or coated and ready for light sanding then varnish. On the boat itself, I went 3D at 53 hours. I am currently at 205 hours total with the bottom on, C/B case installed and working on the mast step/partner. This total includes an extra 25 hours for the strip construction seats. My guess is that I will be at 300 when I complete construction and ready for paint/varnish. I am building the yawl rig which no doubt adds some time.

Thanks for the replies all! I'm using oukoume plywood and locally sourcing the rest of the lumber. Spars to be Finn Forest Spruce LVL, birds mouthed, round. Grown red oak knees. Can't wait to get started!

It took me 11 months working diligently part time...say 20 hrs per/wk average. If my math is correct that's somewhere around 880 hours. I added a few extra fancy bits which added more time but most people seem to add something. I am also an admitted detail guy and probably spent more time than most on making sure everything was just the way I wanted it.

I kept accurate track of time on my blog. Each post has an hour log at the end. It added up to 440 hours but it was my first boat and I went for a high level of finish. I'd estimate that at least 1/3 of the time was due to the fit and finish I wanted to achieve. Fancy details add to the time exponentially. Something like surface mounting oarlocks might take a few minutes to drill 3 holes and insert two screws turns into hours when you set up to route pockets in the gunwale for flush mounting.

8 months, with 5 of those at 12-15 hours a week, and the other 3 at 20-25 hours a week. 600 hours or so.

I'm two months in and the hull is shaped and epoxied. I've been devoting most of my free time to this thing, with weeks of reading blogs and doing research beforehand. Epoxy coating/varnishing/painting takes forever, so I've still got a long road ahead of me, not counting the mast, daggerboard, rudder, spars and all that that I will do this winter. I just wanna throw it in the water and see it float.

In general, building from a kit saves about 25% time. FWIW.

Regarding calendar time (vs hours worked): a big problem for me was not having a heated workspace. I was working in an unheated, uninsulated, detached garage. So I was shut down for about 5 months each year when it was too cold for the epoxy. Since you are in MA, try to make sure you have heat.

But don't hang around in a warmed epoxy fumed space yourself.
All the methods in the plan are about dry assemble a heap of stuff and then do the epoxy process.
Then it's time to get out of the enclosed space.
In South Australia there's a long build season but the few Winter months are pretty bad for epoxy work.
The three worst cases of sensitisation were men, a bit older, working in heated enclosed spaces which they hung around inside

Paul Swanson if you don't want to buy mine, you're still welcome to come
see it if you like- it's very close-right?

Pictures would probably help, does it have a trailer, who made the rig, what fittings Harken/ronstan/etc What cordage dymeena, hemp etc.

It's hard to say what the market will bear. Your boat might be "worth" $5-7 thousand. Not many will pay that for a row boat with a sail. Even at a couple of thou, you may be competing with used Lasers. It all depends what else is available and how "boat savvy" prospective buyers are.
(Sorry for not being helpful at all...)

We have had a reasonable success rate at finding new owners for boats. So put together the details you will need for an advertisement and post here.

it has Dynema sheets and halyard. it has a custom wood trailer. the sail was made by really simple sails. the mast is a hollow birdsmouth spar. the lug and boom are both solid.the fitting are kind of cobbled together, but they all work well. i think the pictures on the website will help.

the boat is located in Mojave CA

Your best bet will probably be advertising here as there will be people interested in a GIS rather than hoping to get a random sale.

I just paid $2k for a boat from Tenn it was in new shape build was a B+ (some drips etc) had a new light weight trailer. I feel I got a great deal considering what material alone would cost. I would start at 3k plus if the build was quality etc

Glad to get back to building after 1 1/2 month break. The Admiral wanted a bathroom remodel and wood flooring in the master bedroom, and you know the old saying. If she isn't happy........ Thankfully that is all done and I have been authorized to return to boat building.

Spent the last few days doing the final sanding, glassing and coating the spars. I am very pleased with how they came out. The mast is birdsmouth and all the others are solid, build from Clinton B Chase kit. "Tipping" the epoxy with a foam brush resulted in a surface that will take very little sanding before varnish. I am planning to use Epifanes Rapidcoat to darken and even out the color just a bit.

For those of you who care about such things:mast - 21#/9.5kgboom - 7#/3.2kgyard - 5.4#/2.4kgmizzen - 5#/2.3kgsprit boom - 0.6#/0.3kg

Next on my dance card is the main mast partner then tank tops. ... See MoreSee Less